Finally it feels like the offseason is truly underway after the first mega deal occurring late in the evening on Tuesday night. Snell's signing with the Dodgers should hopefully open up the flood gates with tons of reactionary moves from the teams that missed out.
While the Braves were never considered to be in the Snell market, we've officially reached Thanksgiving and Alex Anthopoulos' biggest move thus far was the Jorge Soler salary dump trade. It's an odd situation as Anthopoulos is usually finishing up his offseason work before the holidays.
Perhaps the Snell signing is all we needed to push Anthopoulos to begin checking off some of the Braves needs. If he wants to work smarter not harder, one team could provide just about everything the Braves need in a hypothetical blockbuster deal.
Rumored rebuilding St. Louis Cardinals have everything the Braves need
The normally winning organization that is the St. Louis Cardinals have limped through back to back seasons where they missed postseason action. They have now reached a crossroads, and there is a ton of speculation around the club entering a rebuilding phase.
Some stars are on the move in this @castrovince hypothetical deal 👀 pic.twitter.com/CIGOwt7Wyg
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) November 26, 2024
The Cardinals still have plenty of talented players, but for whatever reason it hasn't worked the last couple of years. Should they sell off some of these valuable talents Anthopoulos should be picking up the phone on several red birds players.
We'll begin with the obvious fit in the rotation. Tennessee native and veteran pitcher Sonny Gray signed a pretty big deal with St. Louis last offseason. However, with the Cardinals looking to get younger and the Braves looking to replace Fried/Morton a trade for Gray would make sense.
The 35 year-old had a respectable 3.84 ERA and 3.12 FIP last season. Gray would immediately be the highest paid player on the Braves roster as he is set to make $25 million in 2025 and $35 million in 2026 (Gray has a $30 million club option for 2027). However, Gray has a no-trade clause so he would have to sign off on a potential.
Next is a power bullpen arm the Braves could desperately use in wake of the Joe Jimenez injury. The winner of the Trevor Hoffman award for NL Reliever of the year in 2024 was Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley. He was dominant in the back of the Cards' bullpen pitching to a 2.04 ERA and 2.41 FIP.
Helsley is a free agent after next season and making just over $8 million. His power arm would slot perfectly in the high-leverage situations. Plus his 99.6 mph fastball would be a weapon the Braves haven't had in a long time.
Finally, we arrive at the corner outfielders that could really sweeten this deal for Atlanta. One option is left-handed hitting Brendan Donovan who could really lengthen the Braves lineup. Donovan slashed .278/.342/.417 last season with 14 homers (all of which came against RHP). He is a tough guy to strikeout and is a versatile defender both traits the Braves could use. He would also come with two additional years of arbitration, so the Braves could have him for three total seasons.
However, the perhaps best player the Braves could pry from St. Louis is outfielder Lars Nootbaar. The 27 year-old left-handed hitter is making under $3 million this season and would come with two additional seasons of team control.
Nootbaar is an underrated talent who slashed .244/.342/.417 with 12 homers last season. He ability to draw walks would be a huge boost for an offense starving for OBP guys. Nootbaar ranks in the 98 percentile in BB% and 100th percentile in chase% via baseball savant. His splits actually suggest he's more effective against LHP, but those on-base skills is worth giving up some real prospects for Nootbaar.
A blockbuster deal this big is extremely unlikely, but if Anthopoulos wants to acquire any one of these talented players he'd be making a good deal. The more of them AA tries to group together in a deal the greater the cost would be. Keep an eye on St. Louis over the winter as their offseason could have a lot of impact on what Atlanta does this winter.